Comparison of human entered data to stored electronic data occurs frequently in many different industries. For example, patients fill out forms when entering walk in facilities (e.g., an emergency room) and these paper forms are later entered into an electronic database. Entry of information contained in forms that were filled out by hand is frequently error prone due to numerous factors. For example, the information may be incorrectly filled out (e.g., misspellings, etc.) or the individual entering the information may not be able to read the information written on the form (e.g., due to the handwriting of the individual that filled out the form).
Incorrectly entering text into a database may result in duplicate entries for one individual in a database. For example, if there already exists an entry for Jonathan Smith at 123 Main Street and information is entered for Jon Smith at 123 Main Street, then a new user entry may mistakenly be added to the database instead of using the existing entry for Jonathan Smith at 123 Main Street. This may cause database errors or inconsistencies in the future.